I heard this story on the BBC's World Service this morning:
MPs are calling for an advert showing two men kissing to be reinstated after it was pulled following complaints. More than two decades after the first gay kiss on teatime TV, a kiss is clearly not always just a kiss.
Twenty-one years after Britain's first gay kiss on primetime TV prompted condemnation from MPs, a show of intimacy between two men clearly still has the capacity to shock television audiences.
Heinz has withdrawn an advert for its Deli Mayo brand one week into a five-week schedule. It depicts a man with a New York accent and dressed like a chef, making sandwiches in a homely British family kitchen. After a schoolboy and girl - who refer to the wise-cracking chef as "Mum" - dash through to pick up their sandwiches, their harried father appears, seemingly late for work.
Make the jump to see the ad itself:
There is a push to have the ad placed back in rotation, but not during children's programming - but not for reasons that you might htink:
The commercial was not allowed to be shown during children's programming because of Ofcom regulations governing fat, sugar and salt content. But more than 200 complaints were made to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the advert was "offensive" and "inappropriate".
Here is the ad:
Now while this all might sounds much-ado-about-nothing, read on:
Yet one organisation failing to see the funny side is the American Family Association, which issued an action alert to members over the advert urging them to register their disapproval with the firm's US headquarters.
"We suggest you forward this to all your family and friends letting them know of the push for homosexual marriage by Heinz," says the association on its website. "It is the kind of ad which we can expect to see in California as they prepare to vote on homosexual marriage. Homosexual marriage is illegal in England."
The fight against homophobia continues.